oatmeal honey sandwich bread

My mom is the bread baker in my family, so I usually leave all my bread requests up to her. It’s not that I can’t make bread. It’s just that she makes bread daily anyways, so why bother making my own when I can easily pop over to her house and grab a loaf that’s fresh from the oven? If I don’t eat it, her chickens will! That said, sometimes the aroma of warm, yeasty bread filling my home is too enticing to pass up, so I have a host of go-to recipes for those occasions. When I’m in the mood for an artisan bread that takes no time at all, I always go for the no knead bread. When I want something a little fancier, I bake some ciabatta. And when I want a sandwich bread, I have several loaves to pick from, including mom’s whole wheat bread and this delicious oatmeal honey sandwich bread.

A delicious and healthy bread perfect for morning toast or afternoon sandwiches.

Ingredients

1¼ cups (10 ounces) boiling water

1 cup (3½ ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

1½ teaspoons salt

¼ cup (3 ounces) honey

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour

1-2/3 cups (7 ounces) all-purpose flour

¼ cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk

2 teaspoons instant yeast

Instructions

Place the boiling water, oats, butter, salt and honey into a medium bowl, stir, and let the mixture cool to lukewarm.

Mix the remaining dough ingredients with the oat mixture, and knead – by hand, mixer or bread machine – until you’ve made a soft, smooth dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise for 1 hour; the dough should be doubled in bulk.

Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough – it’ll be sticky, so oil your hands – and shape it into a 9-inch log. Place it in the prepared pan. Cover it gently with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise until it has crowned 1½ inches over the rim of the pan, about 1 to 1½ hours. Near the end of the bread’s rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Uncover and bake the bread for about 45 minutes, tenting it with foil after 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. The bread is done when it’s golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 190 degrees F. Remove it from the oven, and after a minute or so turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted salted butter and sprinkle with additional oats (if desired). Cool the bread completely before cutting it.